The man speaks, the market dives. Amazing.
Just maybe the best possible thing a government can do for an economy is to - get out of the way.
The best a government can offer a healthy young man or woman in these dark times might be an infantry position guarding our southern border - three hots and a cot, a crap salary, and a tent not being a bad way to wait out a recession as we reach a tipping point where those welfare checks just won't cash any more.
Perhaps a flat tax, with a floor beneath which folks are figured to be sufficiently bad off that they don't need their income taxed to achieve the recommended daily amount of misery - that they are sufficiently busy trying to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads that we don't need to sap their minimal resources with yet another burden.
Rather than using the income tax for social engineering, perhaps we are better served with it just generating revenue without inspiring an entire industry dedicated to enforcing and evading its onerous legal and fiscal requirements. The money saved by business could hire innumerable new workers - if business felt it was safe to hire them in the first place.
Towards that end, let us repeal the abomination of ObamaCare - rammed through unread in the middle of the night, with neither debate, consideration, nor comprehension. "You have to pass it in order to read it!".
Starting over and trying again appears a far wiser choice than moving forward with the vast and unsustainable financial burden known as ObamaCare that inspires only uncertainty, fear, and visions of doom in the business community.
Imposing a ten year moratorium on the creation of new federal regulations might not hurt, either - particularly if accompanied by an effort to repeal many of the existing regulations presently burdening the productive sector of society. See "get out of the way".
I'm sure others, wiser and more knowledgeable than I, can offer far more insightful and canny suggestions - but that's the best I can come up with off the cuff, and rather than sit and rant about the absolute crapulence of the current administration... I'm going to try and, at least occasionally, put out a few positive thoughts on how the current cluster could at least start to be untangled.
Good post, good points GC, thanks!
ReplyDeleteOf course Obama has already announced a downsizing of the military as a whole. So no three hots and a cot for anyone not willing to wait through the average of one year enlistment process for ever diminishing slots.
ReplyDeleteOn the flip side, after 20 September "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is officially gone so Gays and Lesbians will be able to serve openly, as long as they don't expect any sort of spousal benefits for a same sex partner. Seriously if it were up to us in the Military this would have changed long ago, but DOMA is still law (why hasn't the hopey dopey unicorn gotten rid of that piece of crap yet?).